The abstracts of wills and administrations are arranged throughout in more or less chronological order by the name of the deceased. The will records give the name of the testator, names of legatees (often showing relationships), summaries of bequests made in the will, date of the will, date of recording, and the page number of the will book wherein the full will is recorded. The administration records generally provide the dates of inventory and appraisal, names of auditors and appraisers, and references concerning the settlement of the estate. The approximately 2,500 wills and administrations in this work refer to approximately 8,000 persons. Many of the wills furnish evidence of North Carolina connections as well.

Nat Turner's 1831 slave insurrection made Virginia's Southampton County notorious. Gradually, however, the bloody spectacle receded from national memory. Although the timeless rhythms of rural life resumed after the insurrection, Southampton could not escape the forces of change. From the Age of Jackson through to secession, wartime, and Reconstruction, it shared the fate of the Old South. Many who had witnessed the insurrection lived to see Tuner's cause triumph as war destroyed the slave system, inaugurating an intense struggle to shape the new postwar order. Old Southampton links local and national history. It explains how partian loyalties developed, how white democracy flourished in the late antebellum years, how secession sharply divded neighborhoods with few slaves from those with large plantations, and how, following emancipation, former slaves challenged the prerogatives of former slaveholders. Crofts draws on two volumnious diaries and other rich records, plus rare poll lists that show how individuals voted. He vividly re-creates the experiences of planters and plain folk, slave owners and slaves, the powerful and the obscure. This deft combination of political and social history is must reading for anyone interested in the Old South and the Civil War era.

The marriages in this work are founded upon the records of the ancient shire of Isle of Wight and include marriages from the area of present-day Southampton County, erected from Isle of Wight in 1749. They derive chiefly from inferential sources, in particular will books, deed books, and order books, though marriage bonds, ministers' returns, and Quaker records also figure significantly in the list of sources. Since comparatively few marriage bonds or official marriage records of Isle of Wight County prior to the year 1800 survive, the great importance of this compilation is at once apparent. The marriages, with the exception of those based on ministers' returns, are arranged alphabetically by the name of the groom, following which is given the name of the bride, the name of a parent or surety, the date of the marriage or marriage record, and the exact source citation. Some 6,300 persons are identified, everyone of whom, including grooms, is cited in the index.

Some vols. also contain reports of cases in the General Court of Virginia.

Previously published by Magna Carta, Baltimore. Published as a set by Genealogical Publishing with the two vols. of the Genealogies in the Library of Congress, and the two vols. of the Supplement. Set ISBN is 0806316691.

From the end of the Revolution until 1851, the Virginia legislature granted most divorces in the state. It granted divorces rarely, however, turning down two-thirds of those who petitioned for them. Men and women who sought release from unhappy marriages faced a harsh legal system buttressed by the political, religious, and communal cultures of southern life. Through the lens of this hostile environment, Thomas Buckley explores with sympathy the lives and legal struggles of those who challenged it. Based on research in almost 500 divorce files, The Great Catastrophe of My Life involves a wide cross-section of Virginians. Their stories expose southern attitudes and practices involving a spectrum of issues from marriage and family life to gender relations, interracial sex, adultery, desertion, and domestic violence. Although the oppressive legal regime these husbands and wives battled has passed away, the emotions behind their efforts to dissolve the bonds of marriage still resonate strongly.